PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

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DCLEMONS
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by DCLEMONS »

Installed the Tempest in the DA40 - ( Thank you Bob Tucker for the recommendation - Boise) On my annual it was suggested to switch out the Champions with Tempest. What I noticed immediately, the engine starts extremely fast, 0-59k @ t/o was reached notably faster, more horsepower on climb.

I noticed that the Champions seem to run rough at idle and ground roll even when leaning. Now it seems as though the engine is running better.

I just flew from KMAN ( Nampa ) to Redding Calif. - I was very happy with the TAS of 140. ( Without wheel covers)

This is a small investment for improved performance -
David
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Charles
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by Charles »

Installed the Tempest Fine Wires all around after one my Champion Fine Wires suddenly stopped working completely. This was during the first flight following a mag overhaul (coincidence?) but the Champions were nearing 1000 hours. My mechanic insisted the other plugs were still good but after watching Mike Busch's spark plug seminar ( http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1826468805001 ), I decided to scrap the Champions.

The Tempest provide a much easier start and perfectly smooth LOP operation. It's a huge improvement.
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ricksigler
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by ricksigler »

Here's a real good video that discusses everything you ever wanted to know about spark plugs for our planes.

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1826468805001
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by rwtucker »

I just had an interesting conversation with my IA while we were working on my Dakota. He says that when Champion plugs develop a high resistance (> 5K) they pose a risk to Slick mags. In his experience, he sees a lot more Champions go high than Autolite/Tempest. (True for my Diamond's fine wires so far, resistance is still at factory values.)

One of my 12 Dakota fine wires was at the margin so we temporarily replaced it with a massive, just to be safe. I have not had time to dig into this further but my IA referenced this one article. A good read: http://blog.aopa.org/opinionleaders/201 ... cceptance/

Whatever the brand, it makes sense to check resistance at least at every annual when you clean your fine wires (by hand, hopefully).
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by Charbie »

FWIW, my right mag failed at 324 hours or so. had to be replaced. makes me wonder if the champion plugs had anything to do with it. I changed the plugs to Tempest after reading all the feedback on this site.
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by rwtucker »

It was probably obvious but I forgot to mention that all of my Dakota fine wires are Champion. All 12 of them tested at more than twice the factory resistance (averaging ~3.5K ohms). It looks like the remaining 11 will have to be replaced a long time before the electrodes are shot. What a waste of money. These plugs are $100 each and I'll be lucky to get 500 hours out of them if I don't want to put my low time Slick mags at risk.
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Rich
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by Rich »

The link Rick provided is kind of a long webinar. It was made in 2012, but asserts 2 widespread problems with Champion plugs, one of which was confined to fine-wires (insulator cracking/destruction) and the other (meteoric rise in resistance values over time) common to both.

In theory, Champion has recently quietly changed their manufacturing processes which MAY have rectified these problems, but they never admitted they had a problem. So if you buy Champions today, how do you know that:

1. They have fixed the problems.
2. That you haven't acquired some of the older ones, as the part numbers are unchanged and it's unclear at what point they quit manufacturing the previous, faulty ones.

The EAA presenter simply goes on to say unequivocally that he recommends Tempest (massive or fine wire), as he hadn't seen problems at all with any of them.

My Tempest (actually Unison/Autolite) fine-wires have been in my Star for 8-1/2 years, 600 hrs tach time and have never given me a problem.
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by Steve »

I'll second what Rich said. I used Champion massive plugs for 10 years on my Star - no problems, other than replacing them every 250 hours or so for electrode wear. Then, I started having problems with cold starts (something I never experienced before). I checked the plugs and found 5/8 out of spec for resistance. Since I changed to the Tempest fine wires - no problem.
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by Charles »

As mentioned previously, I replaced all my Champion fine wires with Tempest fine wires.
In addition to easier starts and smoother LOP operation, now that I've done a few flights, I notice that peak EGT is achieved at a higher fuel flow than before, about 0.4-0.5 gph and this translates into an increase of about 3-4 knots in cruise speed.

Anyone else experienced this?

This coincided with a mag overhaul so it's not clear if this can all be attributed to the spark plugs but likely because the mags were in decent shape before their O/H.
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Re: PIREP: Tempest Fine Wire Plugs

Post by dant »

Out of curiosity, what were people paying for these? I see them on Spruce for 135 bucks, and also apparently out of stock.
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